At approximately 3:45 p.m. C.S.T. on Thursday, July 10th the UK Solar Car Team became the 4th team to qualify for the North American Solar Challenge cross-country rayce. After passing scrutineering on wednesday, Gato Del Sol III began the track rayce portion of qualifying on the 1.7 mile road course at the Texas Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX. In order for the car to qualify 60 laps had to be completed in a single day on either Thursday or Friday. Further, in order for a driver to qualify, he/she had to complete 15 laps on the track. Mark Taylor was the first UK driver to qualify, completing 17 laps with little difficulty. In fact, it was reported by one official rayce observer that Mark posted the 2nd fastest single lap of the day at 2 minutes 57 seconds. (The fastest lap was completed by Minnesota at 2 minutes 47 seconds.) Once Mark was qualified the driver was changed and Scott Ascraft (an incoming freshman) took over. During mid-day there were several minor mechanical and electrical problems but the pit crew knew exactly what they were doing and repairs were made carefully and without worry. From that point forward, the car ran spectacularly and the decision was made to keep Scott in the cockpit unit the car was completely qualified. Scott then completed the remaining laps to qualify the car. The team spent the remaining time on Thursday addressing technical issues that will make the car more reliable over the 2400 miles road rayce that begins on Sunday. Two more drivers are expected to qualify on Friday, which will consist of another day at the track collecting data on the car and improving its performance even further.